AN all-Ireland non-incineration facility to treat all health care baste is being built jointly by the health departments in the two jurisdictions, the Dail was told last night.
The provision of the service is already at tender stage and a contractor should be appointed by December.
The Minister for the Environrnent, Mr Howlin, speaking on behalf of the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, told the Dail last night that the service should be operational by the end of 1997.
Originally, the plan was to have the service up and running by the end of this year, said Mr Howlin.
But the project was delayed because of an agreement to develop a joint approach with the Department of Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland.
He also announced that the Department of Health had yesterday agreed, in principle, arrangements for the export of healthcare risk waste to Holland for incineration. Exports would most likely begin early in November.
Health agencies would be briefed today on the arrangements, said Mr Howl in. In the meantime, he added, they should continue to store waste on site in refrigerated containers.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Health Board has rejected allegations that it is breaking planning laws by allowing a hospital in Blanchardstown, Co Dublin, to treat clinical waste from other hospitals in the EHB area.
The board admitted that the James Connolly Memorial Hospital was disposing of a very small" amount of waste from the EHB-owned hospitals in Naas and Loughlinstown and from its facilities for the elderly and mentally ill.
But no waste was taken from the "major acute hospitals" of the EHB region and procedures were in effect pending submission of a new planning application to Fingal County Council.